Onward Nation

America's best podcast for learning how today's top business owners Think, Act, & Achieve. Onward Nation is a five-day-a-week podcast hosted by Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI. Business owners share the most influential lessons learned throughout their careers, including insights into their daily habits, their most vital priorities that have contributed to their business and personal success, and the most challenging time or situation that could have devastated or even ruined their businesses or careers. Business owners share their "recipes for success" including those systems they wish they had put into practice inside their business when first starting out. Each episode concludes with guests sharing two or three practical and tactical strategies they would recommend to brand new business owners in order to best ensure success in their new business and careers. Onward Nation provides business owners with the strategies and tactical step-by-step "recipe" that will help anyone make their business more systematic, predictable, measurable, and repeatable.

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Rosalie Chamberlain specializes in maximizing talent and productivity within organizations. Her mission is helping organizations become inclusive environments where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and to help individuals become their best authentic self to lead effective careers and lives. You may remember Rosalie and the wisdom she shared during Episode 284. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 284 to your list of vital priorities.

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.

Good Morning Onward Nation and welcome to Episode 631…it is always a pleasure and honor to have you here with me. Before we get to today’s solocast, Onward Nation – I owe you a couple important thank you’s.

First, I want to say thank you for all of the ratings and reviews on iTunes. We just received a wave of new reviews and I want you to know how grateful I am for that.

You taking time out of your day to let us know what you think of the show is something my team and I take very seriously – something we consider sacred – whether you give us a thumbs up or a thumbs down – hearing from you is how we get better each and every day.

So thank you, Onward Nation, for your continued support, feedback, and all of your ratings and reviews.

And second, I want to say thank you for sharing Onward Nation episodes with your friends and colleagues…because each and every share, retweet, and post you do helps Onward Nation become heard by more people in more countries. Because of you…listeners in 119 countries have become part of Onward Nation. Because of you…business owners from around the world are able to learn from other successful business owners and how they think, act, and achieve.

So thank you, Onward Nation!

I appreciate your time and attention more than you will ever know – and the fact that you have chosen to invest a part of your day making Onward Nation what you listen to and study means a great deal to me and to my entire team.

Okay, now let’s dive into today’s solocast.

And with today’s solocast – I am going to include a twist similar to what I did back in Episode 612 when we decided to air an interview from when I was the guest on the Integrate and Ignite Podcast…which is hosted by my friend, Lori Jones…CEO of Avocet Communications.

Being a guest on another podcast gives me a special opportunity to share perspectives, insights, and experience that I might not normally share during an episode with an Onward Nation guest.

So I wanted you to hear the episode with Lori because of the takeaways that might be helpful if applied into your business.

So for today’s solocast…I am going to follow a similar recipe. We are going to air an episode where I was a guest on the podcast, MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, hosted by Colin Sprake.

I wanted you to hear this interview because of the depth that Colin and I explored the value of mentorship, the biggest mistake I made by not listening to the advice of Darren Hardy, one of my personal mentors, and the impact the right mentorship program can have on your company, its culture, as well as the dollars and cents behind it, in my opinion.

Colin and I also went pretty deep into business development and why I think business owners are missing a big opportunity by not focusing their time and attention on their Dream 50 prospects.

Okay, Onward Nation…so without further adieu, here is Colin Sprake from MYM Your Business: The Brutal Truth, and yours truly, as his guest.

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Okay…welcome back, Onward Nation.

I hope you found the conversation with Colin Sprake to be helpful in illustrating the power and influence of great mentorship and the impact it can have within your business and on your team.

In fact…we take mentorship so seriously here at Predictive ROI that each member of our leadership meets each week for a dedicated, one-on-one mentorship session with each of the teammates on their respective teams.

This process has helped us grow as a team, become stronger has a team, reinforced our values as a team, and helped us uncover potential problem areas for clients and solve them before they became actual problem areas.

And most importantly…the weekly sessions have helped us invest in our younger leaders – both in them as teammates and in their career path.

We do and invest in all of this so that on the day one of our teammates is invited to join the Predictive ROI leadership team, they are well-prepared, they have seen the situations before, and they know they have teammates around them who will support them no matter what.

That is a valuable culture…so that when the going gets tough and we all need to dig even deeper…or…when we are riding high and there is praise and thanks to go around…we stay grounded and realize that is all about the team.

So for all of us here at Predictive ROI…it is always…100% of the time…about the team…and my hope is that some of that message came through in my discussion with Colin – and – that there were takeaways that you can apply into your business, too.

So with that said…

Thank you again for taking the time to be here today…I am grateful for you making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I appreciate you taking some of your invaluable time and sharing it with me.

Dustin Mathews is the co-founder of Speaking Empire – the disruptive company in the leadership and education space – whose chief mission is advancing the human race by empowering leaders to communicate powerfully, unlock their fullest potential, and ultimately step into their greatness. He is the author of several bestselling books, including his latest that he co-authored to Dan Kennedy, “The No B.S. Guide To Powerful Presentations: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Plan to Sell Anything with Webinars, Online Media, Speeches, and Seminars”.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

The importance of having a message and delivering it with passion

Why you should develop core content and figure out different ways to deliver it

Barbara Trautlein is author of the best-selling book “Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change That Sticks”. She is the Principal and Founder of Change Catalysts and originator of the CQ System for Developing Change Intelligence. For over 25 years, Barbara has coached executives, trained leaders at all levels, certified change agents, and facilitated mission-critical change management initiatives – achieving bottom-line business and powerful leadership results for clients.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

Recognizing that with change sometimes comes fear

The importance of having empathy

Why you need to be change friendly, ready, and intelligent

What CQ means and why it is important

Why 70% of major organizational changes fail

The importance of change leadership

How to overcome resistance to change

What the three main styles of leading change are

How business owners can assess their CQ

Which change leader styles are most prevalent and how they lead

How to best connect with Barbara:

Dorie Clark is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of “Entrepreneurial You” — and — “Reinventing You” and “Stand Out”, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. Magazine. Dorie is also a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and consults and speaks for clients including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank. You may remember Dorie and the wisdom she shared during Episode 97. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all she shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 97 to your list of vital priorities.

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.

Joe Schmit is an author, a 18-time Emmy award-winning broadcaster, community leader, and popular keynote speaker. As a sports broadcaster, he has covered every major sporting event in the past three decades and has interviewed many of the biggest names in sports. His award-winning book, “Silent Impact-Stories of Influence Through Purpose, Persistence and Passion” is now in its 4th printing. You may remember Joe and the wisdom he shared during Episode 310. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 310 to your list of vital priorities.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

How great leaders are discovering new ways to lead

Why silent impact is the future of leadership

The importance of making your team feel significant

How we make our biggest impact when we are not trying to be impressive

Why some of the best bosses and leaders are tough but fair

What the great leaders have figured out about success

The value of making connections which then leads to making an impact

Why scheduling impact time is important

How a business owner can become a better mentor to their team

How you can get your business to the next level by making it about the employees

How to best connect with Joe:

Shiv Kera is the founder of Qualified Learning Systems USA. He is the author of 14 books including the international bestseller “You Can Win”, which has sold over 3.5 million copies in 21 languages. His 30 years of research and understanding has put organizations on a path of growth and fulfillment and tens of thousands of people have benefitted from his dynamic workshops internationally in over 20 countries. Shiv’s trademark is “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

The importance of accepting that some things are out of our control

Remembering life is full of choices and compromises

Why we cannot choose the cards that are dealt to us, but we can choose how we react

Why Shiv says “winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”

How you can make positive habits into a reflex action

The importance of forming good habits

The benefits of journaling every day

How winners form the habit of doing things that losers don’t like to do

Why you not only need the skill to do a job, but also need the will

Why regardless of your profession, there is no competition

How to best connect with Shiv:

Gina Bianchini is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks…a rapidly growing SaaS platform for creating your own network effects brands and businesses –– replacing a blog or website with a niche social network. Gina and Mighty Networks have been featured in Fast Company, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. Before Mighty Networks, Gina and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen launched Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks. She also co-founded LeanIn.Org with Sheryl Sandberg, an organization dedicated to women leaning into their ambitions, where she launched Lean In Circles worldwide.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

How creating a community around a niche topic can lead to a successful business

Why the demand for niche businesses is increasing

Why digital entrepreneurs need to put a community at the core of the business they are building

The value of connecting your customers and having them to talk to each other

The need to learn quickly so you can make better and more informed decisions

The importance of setting goals and intentions

Why having a sponsor is important and how it is different than having a mentor

Why being on more than one social media platform is important

The importance of asking yourself “what do I want to learn next”

How eliminating self doubt and negative thoughts leads to success

How to best connect with Gina:

Maxine Harris is the CEO and co-founder of Community Connections, a large social service organization operating in Washington, D.C. She is a national expert in clinical practices for treating persons with serious mental illness, substance addiction, homelessness, trauma, domestic violence, and traumatic loss. She has authored or edited nine books and 10 training manuals and recently released her newest book, “LESSONS FOR NON-PROFIT AND START-UP LEADERS: TALES FROM A RELUCTANT CEO”.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

How our mistakes can be our greatest teachers

When starting out in business, why you should not hire your friends

The reasons why you need to learn to delegate

The importance of knowing what your priorities are

The power of keeping your office door open and the sense of availability it provides

Why culture is not something that you prescribe, it’s something that you live

The importance of having a diversified revenue stream

The value of taking a step back to be able to view the big picture

Why you should look to hire individuals who have a passion for what they do

How ongoing self-assessment is essential to your success

How to best connect with Maxine:

Johann Van Tonder is COO at AWA Digital — an award-winning conversion rate optimization agency that helps e-commerce businesses around the world grow online conversion rates and sales using a scientific process. He is also the co-author of the book, “E-COMMERCE WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION: WHY 95% OF YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS DON’T BUY, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT”.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

The value of using speaking engagements as an opportunity to teach rather than sell

Why Johann and Dan wrote the book “E-Commerce Website Optimization”

Why value proposition is a central concept in marketing and conversion rate optimization

The importance of understanding and shaping consumer behavior

How to research your customers to determine their consumer behavior

The benefits of doing usability testing using online video services

How to turn more of your website visitors into customers

Why you should grow your business methodically over time

The importance of listening to your customers

Why the most critical skill to master is understanding the components that make up your profit

How to best connect with Johann:

Ron Schutz consults with business owners to help them realize their full potential for their business, while also developing strategies and workable solutions to prepare them for transition. He has been giving financial advice to business owners for over 50 years and is the author of the new book, “AMERICAN FATHERS”, which explores the ideas of moral capitalism and what it means to be an entrepreneur in a global society with different values.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

Some of the challenges that entrepreneurs are facing today

Building yourself into a media channel to promote your business

How technology has changed the way business owners spread their message

The importance of collaborating with other business owners

Why having more dialog with your clients, employees and vendors is important

Taking time to be thankful and grateful

The most critical skill needed to thrive in business: being an active listener

Why having the ability to stay focused is vital to success

How looking at a situation through another’s lens leads to greater appreciation

Why you should always look to continuously improve

How to best connect with Ron:

Dina Dwyer-Owens is the co-chair of The Dwyer Group, a service-based franchise company which now includes 19 service brands and accounts for more than $1.5 billion in system-wide sales. She’s a certified franchise executive with more than 35 years of industry experience — 15 years as CEO of Dwyer Group. America also knows her for participating in CBS’s Emmy-winning hit reality show “Undercover Boss” and the first-ever special episode “Undercover Boss: Epic Bosses.” Dina is the author of two books: Live R.I.C.H. and Values, Inc. that both share her global message for living and leading with a proven code of values.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

The importance of celebrating the successes of yesterday but learning from the mistakes

Why leading with values is important within a company

Why you should always treat people with respect and dignity

How to create a system around your company’s values

Why “living” your values is critical to success

Gaining access to a free “Create Your Culture Workbook”

Why you should take every day as a learning opportunity

Looking for the solution via your values when facing obstacles in your business

The lessons that can be learned by letting yourself be vulnerable

Why, as a leader, you have to be willing to let go of wanting to be great at everything

How to best connect with Dina:

Naphtali Hoff is an executive coach and president of Impactful Coaching & Consulting. He completed his doctorate in human and organizational psychology and holds two master’s degrees in education and educational leadership. Naphtali’s personal experience in the leadership field allows him to understand leaders’ needs and craft solutions to help them optimize their performance and success. He is also the author of the new book, “Becoming the New Boss: The New Leader’s Guide to Sustained Success”.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

The outcomes of starting a new leadership position with success

How having a podcast gives a business owner a new way to connect with people

The importance of reaching out to other business owners and mentors

Why setting goals is a critical daily habit

How avoiding distractions allows for a high impact work day

Why having a clear sense of direction is a critical skill to master

The benefits of bringing everyone in the organization together to help make decisions

Gavin Zuchlinski is the founder of Acuity Scheduling, the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He is a self-professed tech geek who wholeheartedly believes that business should be fun. Acuity Scheduling supports over 50,000 businesses of all sizes, from people working for themselves to major corporations with thousands of employees.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

The benefits of building your business slow and steady

Why you should focus on creating a product that people will love

How setting up a checklist of tasks to improve your product will improve your business

Why spending time improving your product before you market the product is important

The importance of listening to your customer’s feedback

How reading and researching every day makes you and your business better

Building a business with recurring revenue makes the business more attractive to buyers

The importance of remembering the reason your business exists is to help its customers

Why staying connected to your customers and the technical aspects of your business is important

The power of being happy in the moment and taking joy in what you do every day

How to best connect with Gavin:

Mike Canarelli is the CEO and Co-Founder of Web Talent Marketing and is recognized as one of the top digital marketing agencies in the United States who prides itself on providing unique, scalable long-term solutions for its clients. Mike holds a B.S. from Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management where he studied Entrepreneurship and Management Information Systems. After six years as a freelance designer and web developer, he founded Axis Creative Group in 2006 and later merged with Web Talent SEO in late 2010.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

How organization can help you tackle your daily vital priorities

The importance of focusing on the details of each project

The benefits of clearing out your email inbox by the end of each day

The obstacles that can be overcome when your organization works as a team

How adversity leads to great lessons on how to rebound and come out stronger

Why being a strong leader can help your team weather the tough times

Remaining calm under pressure: a critical skill for business owners to master

Remembering to stop, breathe, think then act when facing adversity

The importance of trusting those you hire

Why you need to find a good mentor and lean on them for sound business advice

How to best connect with Mike:

Peter Lisoskie is the founder of Chatbot Nation — a technology that fosters a more humanized and connected relationship between people and brands using chatbots, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He helps business owners and entrepreneurs create an interactive experience with chatbots to deliver leads, improve sales conversions, provide customer service, sell products, and win new clients.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

What a chatbot is

How chatbots create an instant interactive experience

How to use a chatbot as part of a lead generation strategy

Why Peter feels businesses will be moving away from email marketing

How chatbots allow the user to drive the experience

The advantages of using a chatbot for customer service

How chatbots contribute to your company’s bottom line

The power of Messenger Codes as a marketing tool

Why having an animated chatbot character helps create an elevated human connecting experience

Beth Storz is President and Innovation Process Consultant at Ideas To Go with a rich history of helping companies and brands to be more innovative. Beth's experience ranges from managing large flagship brands to smaller strategic portfolios. Beth is the co-author of the recent book, “Outsmart Your Instincts: How the Behavioral Innovation Approach Drives Your Company Forward.”

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

What cognitive biases are

The cognitive biases that impede innovation

How to overcome the cognitive biases and get your business to the next level

How the negativity bias holds back innovative thinking

The power of using positive words to trick the brain into problem solving

What the curse of knowledge is and how it puts constraints on innovation

How the fear factor can hold you back from trying new ideas

Understanding that you alone do not have all the answers is a critical skill to master

The impact of surrounding yourself with those who are smarter than you

Amy Kirsch is the Director of Investor Relations at RealtyShares, an online marketplace for real estate investing connecting individual and institutional investors to private U.S. real estate investments. She has over 10 years of financial services experience & has worked in wealth management for Merrill Lynch, Dearborn Partners, and JP Morgan’s Private Bank before working as the Head of Investor Relations for PeerRealty, a Chicago real estate crowdfunding platform.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

How real estate investing has become democratized

What steps need to be taken to become a real estate investor

The benefits of making a vital priorities list for the week

How time blocking can become an important part of your success

Why the most critical skill to master is focus

The importance of doing right by your clients, following up, and following through

Why you should celebrate and reward the wins of your team

Why having employees who have a sense of urgency is important

The importance of having a team that supports and encourages each other

Our special encore guest today is Jay Irwin and he is an adventurous soul who is determined to inspire people through wilderness experiences. He teaches audiences, from inner-city youth to executives, how to bring the gifts learned from wilderness experiences into daily life to create powerful and long-lasting change. He is the owner of CBST Adventures where he takes clients out of their comfort zone so they can experience the metaphors of nature. You may remember Jay and the wisdom he shared during Episode 306. If you haven’t listened to, studied, and applied all he shared during our first interview…I highly encourage you to add Episode 306 to your list of vital priorities.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

What experiential leadership is

The benefits of experiential leadership training

How experiential leadership training leads to team building

How experiential leadership training can help businesses with succession planning

How to best connect with Jay:

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of three bestselling books including the recently released Profitable Podcasting. He is also a speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media.

Good Morning Onward Nation and welcome to Episode 612…it is always a pleasure and honor to have you here with me – I greatly appreciate your time and attention – and the fact that you have chosen to invest a part of your day making Onward Nation what you listen to and study means a great deal to me.

So thank you very, very much.

Today’s episode is going to be a solocast – with a bit of a twist. If you have been listening to the show for a while now – you know that from time to time, I record an episode without a guest – and I call those solocasts – and I do this – because a solocast gives you and me an opportunity to go deeper on a topic and to really explore the depth of a particular lesson.

But for today’s solocast – there is a bit of a twist.

And the twist is that my team and I are going to use this solocast as an opportunity to share an episode where I was recently the guest on the Integrate and Ignite podcast…hosted by my friend, Lori Jones…CEO of Avocet Communications.

Okay…so why did I decide to air another podcast’s episode inside today’s solocast?

I made that decision because of the value I think this interview with share with you.

For example…

Lori and I talk more about how – if you were to launch a podcast, YouTube channel, rockin’ awesome blog, or another form of cornerstone content – it could become your Trojan Horse of Sales and ignite your business development strategy within your company.

You and I went deep into this topic during Episode 600 of Onward Nation – but the perspective I share with Lori and what she shares with me will provide additional context that will be helpful to your biz dev.

Lori and I also talk about the importance of thought leadership and how it can be used to share your expertise with your dream prospects – and – add value to your existing customers, which is an important lesson for most business owners, especially those who are being forced to pivot their business over the next 12-36 months.

I also helped Lori’s audience see – and I want you to see, too, Onward Nation, how a piece of cornerstone content – again…that may be a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a blog article, etc. can then be used to create 30, 40, even 50 pieces of smaller content.

And this adds leverage into your business and helps you create scale.

Plus, this portion of the conversation with Lori begins to fulfill the promise I made to you during Episode 600 when I said that I would go deep into the content creation process during a future solocast, which I will still do and am preparing that episode right now, in fact.

But the conversation with Lori is an additional layer of introduction that provides some helpful context as we continue moving down the content creation path.

And lastly…Lori and I also address another scaling issue – and that is how to get your internal team onboard with the strategy of creating cornerstone content to drive business development – and – that this strategy is going to run alongside the Trojan Horse of Sales.

And I know it may be surprising, Onward Nation – but – you will be able to complete a lot of this work if you were to recruit and hire several talented and highly motivated unpaid interns to your team.

Lori and I talk about the recipe we have used here at Predictive ROI to do just that – we have recruited and hired 25 unpaid interns over the last several years – and they have been extraordinary. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you need a large team of expensive talent to be effective in this strategy.

Okay, Onward Nation…here is Lori Jones from the Integrate and Ignite podcast, and yours truly as her guest.

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Okay…welcome back, Onward Nation.

I hope you found the conversation with Lori Jones to be helpful in illustrating the power that cornerstone content can have within your business development strategy.

In fact…Erik Jensen from my Predictive ROI team and I were just on-site for a 2-day strategy session with a company in the financial services industry – and during the discussion – one of the business leaders said, “Wow…now I get it…now I see how our podcast could become the center of our entire content strategy.”

And yes, he was correct…your podcast…when executed properly…doesn’t just help you build a nation of true fans…or an audience…but each and every episode is cornerstone content that can fuel your entire business development strategy.

I will break this down into precise detail during my next solocast and illustrate the full power of the strategy – but for today, my hope is that the additional context was helpful.

Thank you again for taking the time to be here today…I am grateful for you making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day and I appreciate you taking some of your invaluable time and sharing it with me.